These scores are so creative, often impossible but also often pointing to impermanence. The gift is wrapped in something that the receiver will never know of the effort and experience that went into recording it. There is an imprint of a memory that neither will (re)discover. It seems to be about giving without expecting to receive gratification or recognition, which is a central virtue of the Boddhisatva ideal.
It also reminds me of Marcel Duchamp’s With Hidden Noise (1917)
‘This Readymade was a collaborative exercise that Duchamp completed with the help of his friend Walter Arensberg. Duchamp instructed Arensberg to loosen the long screws holding the construction together, place a small object inside the ball of twine, and not inform him or anyone else what it was. What rattles inside when With Hidden Noise is shaken remains a mystery to this day. Duchamp explained in a 1956 interview, “Before I finished it Arensberg put something inside the ball of twine, and never told me what it was, and I didn’t want to know. It was a sort of secret between us, and it makes noise, so we called this a Ready-made with a hidden noise. Listen to it. I don’t know; I will never know whether it is a diamond or a coin” (Sanouillet & Peterson 135).’
